Are You A Well Informed Investor?

If you turn on any financial television network from CNBC to Fox Business and Bloomberg you will hear various commentary, opinions and facts presented by the guests on the program, and some of these guests are some of the most affluent and influential people in the world.

Now with that said in the technology age we are in and the access to content at home or on the road via the various Apple iTunes products such as the iPhone, iTouch, iPad etc and soon the Blackberry tablet, it can be overwhelming. For the average person it can become confusing, because the question that comes into play is who can you trust?

No one has a crystal ball, yes people can predict trends and use all their experience to shed a little light on individual situations or even on the whole market as a whole and I am not just talking about the stock market I am talking about real estate, commodities, stocks, bonds, the whole shabang. But in the end if you are not self educating yourself on the rumblings, ramblings, and hardcore facts then you are doing yourself a disservice because none of these educators, financiers or professionals on television can do that for you, they can surely give you some insight but its up to you to do your own homework.

Some people do more research in buying a new car then they do when looking at their finances, being an informed investor is the only route to go. I don't care if you are 18 or 80, if you have millions in the markets and real estate or are just managing your 401K and IRA, you need to be informed.

I don't know how many times I've heard people just blindly trusting the manager of their pension fund, 401K etc, not questioning the reasoning for invested in XYZ fund or what is exactly in the fund, and don't let me get started on individual stocks, the reality is this look at the fundamentals, look at the trends and listen to Public Enemies song "Don't Believe The Hype" because the hype is sometimes just that HYPE.

Bernard Baruch was one of the most influential and brightest American Financiers of his time and the story goes that he was getting his shoes shined and the shoe shine guy gave him a Hot Stock Tip, the very next day he starting pulling out of the stock market, his reasoning was that when you start getting stock tips from a shoe shine guy then you know there is something wrong and time to get out.

My point is self education is key, understanding what you are invested in as well as the economic world around you is very important, pick up Investors Business Daily, its a simple read as opposed to the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times, hey if you have the time to read the WSJ and FT by all means do so it will be a big help but IBD is for those that don't have an hour to spend reading.

I will periodically post my view on the global markets and I will be posting my view on West Africa and China as it relates to global growth Brazil is a gimme but I think that my view may enlightened manufacturing companies globally and my views come from real life experience and not just sitting in front of a computer crunching numbers, although I do that as well.

I'll leave you do your research as it relates to your finances because no one is going to solidify your golden years but you.